Author Archives: Alan Cooper

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has acknowledged that a state law aimed at “noisy, lewd or disorderly conduct” on the premises of its licensees violates the U.S. Constitution. But Kevin E. Martingayle and James N. Insley, the Virginia ...

The first circuit court ruling on the constitutionality of Virginia’s civil remedial fees is expected this week from Henrico Judge L.A. Harris Jr. Harris questioned defense attorney Craig S. Cooley closely last week on whether the General Assembly could have ...

When Oliver W. Hill Sr. graduated from the Howard University law school in 1933, racial segregation was so entrenched that no one thought seriously of tackling it head on. But Charles H. Houston, the dean of the law school, had ...

A plaintiff can collect under the uninsured motorist provisions of his automobile liability policy even though the defendant ambulance driver has partial immunity from suit. Fairfax Circuit Judge Arthur B. Vieregg reached that conclusion last month in one of the ...

A Henrico County General District judge has ruled that the civil remedial fees for traffic misdemeanors and felonies violate the equal protection clauses of the Virginia and United States Constitutions. The fees, designed to produce about $65 million annually for ...

Virginia Code Sect. 18.2-415, the disorderly conduct statute, is an anomaly. It excludes a finding of guilt under the statute if the conduct in question violates another criminal law. “That is the only statute that is written that way,” said ...

The distinction between outright ownership and control of a revocable trust by the person who is settlor, trustee and sole beneficiary seldom makes a difference. But Loudoun County Circuit Judge James H. Chamblin concluded that it can in the case ...

A former Virginia Commonwealth University professor and a student had different accounts of the nature of their sexual relationship. The student contended that Dr. Peng W. Hsia, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, had forced himself upon her in his ...

Lewis T. Stoneburner is a very successful lawyer, as a string of seven-figure verdicts in personal injury cases in recent years illustrates. But he goes to a tax specialist for tax advice and to a trust and estates lawyer for ...

Budget documents from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science describe the instruments that measure the level of intoxication content as “dated, unstable and unreliable.” Peter M. Marone, director of the department, says a more accurate description of the Intoxilyzer 5000 ...